TR EMERITUS

Chosun Ilbo, 16 March 2010 North Korean security agents specialize in torture techniques using needles, water and electric shocks, but recently, sexual abuse is said to have become the preferred interrogation tool. Robert Park, a missionary released by Pyongyang last month after crossing the border on Christmas Eve, was severely beaten and sexually abused during his detention, according to his close associates. Park, 28, who was released after 43 days in detention has received psychiatric treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. He was severely beaten by North Korean border guards just after crossing over the border. After being transferred to Pyongyang, Park was then tortured by security agents. The sexual abuse was probably intended to break his will and exact a fabricated apology. Read rest of article here  Read More →

[email protected] Dust is now beginning to settle on the Lions’ ultimately unsuccessful 2011 Asian Cup qualification. The unsavoury media reports on the indiscipline of the Lions leading up to the crucial Group game in Jordan had turned a few heads in the local media and a few others journalists had expressed their utter disappointment on the circumstances that led to the defeat. However, like everything in life, the Lions’ performance throughout the qualifying campaign must be taken into perspective. Ultimately, success is relative, especially in sports - where no one team can win matches without someone else losing. With that in mind, the editorial team had decided to access the development and relative success (or lack of) of our national team since 2000. For the purpose of analysis, four other regional national teams are selected as benchmarks, namely Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. Besides our geographical ties, these four teams are by and large considered on par with the Lions. The Ingredients The best chefs in the world will agree that the best dishes require the best ingredients. At international level, the most successful national teams are relatively populous nations where football had been embedded into their history for over a hundred years. The past five different winners of the World Cup prove this – Italy (60million), Brazil (192m), France (65m), Germany (82m) and Argentina (40m). Apologies for stating the obvious, but this is where Singapore is in an extremely disadvantageous position. Our population is only about 2% of Indonesia’s and 6% of Vietnam’s. Because of this, our domestic league is relatively smaller in size and hence the estimated pool of professional players whom our national coach can choose from is relatively smaller. For the sake of comparison, it should be noted that we also do not have a huge pool of players who are based overseas (unlike a nation of similar size like the Republic of Ireland, where they have large numbers of players based in England). Table 1   Singapore Thailand Malaysia Indonesia Vietnam Country population 4,987,600 63,389,730 28,306,700 231,369,500 85,789,573 Estimate pool of Professional players (in top flight domestic football)** 150 410 308 450 280 Professional domestic league since 1996 1996 2004 1994 N/A Number of prominent national players based overseas 4 5 0 0 0 ** Average number of registered players less foreigners of all local teams in top flight. International Stage With that in mind, we will be looking at our showing at the international stage over the past ten years. In terms of FIFA world ranking, Singapore fared relatively no different from our rivals, with the exception of Thailand. Like Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, Singapore has achieved the highest FIFA ranking of mid-70s and is currently ranking outside the top 100. Another acid test to judge the Lions’ performance is qualification in continental competitions and for the World Cup. For qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, all five nations in question were eliminated in the 2nd round. Thailand came the closest, finishing third in their group and four points away from qualification for the next round. Singapore finished 15 points away from progress. The 2007 Asian Cup was not a fair gauge as our rivals all qualified as co-hosts, while Singapore missed out, finishing 7 points from progress. For the 2010 World Cup qualification, Singapore was arguably the best performer in the region. We finished third in a tough group in the 3rd third round, nine points from progress. Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam were all eliminated before this round and Thailand was bottom of their group. And for the most recent qualification campaign, Singapore was just two points from qualification and again, only Thailand fared slightly better. The other three nations were no where near qualifying. Besides showing that the Lions had fared better than average in qualification campaigns, it is interesting to note the overall progress which the team had enjoyed over the course of the last four qualification campaigns. The Lions were perennial whipping boys before, but our past two qualification campaigns had proven that the team can go out to win a couple of games and seriously challenge.  Table 2   Singapore Thailand Malaysia Indonesia Vietnam Highest FIFA ranking 73 (Aug 1993) 43 (Sep 1998) 75 (Aug 1993) 73 (Sep 1998) 84 (Sep 1998) Current FIFA ranking (Feb 2010) 120 98 159 136 116 World Cup 2006 Qualification 4th in 2nd round (15pts from next round) 3rd in 2nd round (4pts from next round) 4th in 2nd round (15pts from next round) 3rd in 2nd round (11pts from next round) 3rd in 2nd round (10pts from next round) Asian Cup 2007 qualification 3rd in Final qualifying Group (7 points away from qualification) Qualified as co-hosts Qualified as co-hosts Qualified as co-hosts Qualified as co-hosts World Cup 2010 Qualification 3rd in 3rd round (9pts away) 4th in 3rd round (10pts) Eliminated in 1st round Eliminated in 2nd round Eliminated in 1st round Asian Cup 2011 qualification 4th in Final qualifying Group (2 pts away) 3rd in Final qualifying Group (2 pts) 3rd in Final qualifying Group (9 pts) 4th in Final qualifying Group (6 pts) 3rd in Final qualifying Group (8 pts)    Regional Supremacy Another way to look at success is to look at how you have performed against your rivals directly. Two regional competitions to analyse this is of course the ASEAN Championship (previously Tiger Cup) and the SEA Games. In this aspect, Singapore is clearly number two in the region, with Thailand being the dominant force over the last ten years or so. In terms of victories in the ASEAN championships, we are tied at three-all with the Thais, though they have clearly performed much better in the SEA Games tournaments (which feature the U23 teams since 2001). All FIFA ‘A’ listed games between Singapore and the regional rivals since 2000 had also been compiled. It is interesting to note that only Vietnam has a better head-to-head record against the Lions. We have beaten Thailand four times in the past decade and they had only come up tops thrice.  Table 3   Singapore Thailand Malaysia Indonesia Vietnam ASEAN Championship (Previously Tiger Cup) performances 3 Titles 3 Titles; 2 Runners-up 1 Runners-up 3 Runners-up 1 Title, 1 Runners-up SEA Games performances (since 2001) 0 4 Titles 1 Title; 1 Runners-up 0 3 Runners-up   Table 4 - Singapore head-to-head vs regional rivals   P W D L Pts Average pts F A GD Indonesia 9 5 3 1 18 2.00 12 6 6 Thailand 10 4 3 3 15 1.50 10 16 -6 Malaysia 12 3 6 3 15 1.25 12 14 -2 Vietnam 8 1 5 2 8 1.00 6 7 -1    The decade ahead Statistically, it must be said that the Singapore national team had outperformed our regional rivals since 2000, with the exception of perhaps Thailand. However, the Thais had been the traditional powerhouse for a long time and our recent records do suggest that we can match them. The decade ahead will be the team’s chance to usurp the Thais as the dominant force in South East Asia and then move on to conquer bigger things. From now till the end of this year, the Lions will have all the time in the world to prepare for the ASEAN championship, which will be held in Vietnam and Indonesia (knock-out stages will be two-legged). It is fair to say that the Lions need a strong performance in that competition to brush aside any doubts in the media which may be still lingering by then. Other articles on the Lions: Singapore National Football Team Saga: Straits Times article VS Avramovic’s subsequent clarification Heartbreak for Lions Lions on the verge of making history  Read More →

AFP, 15 March 2010 Twitter co-founder Evan Williams told a gathering of the technology faithful yesterday that notorious censorship firewalls in countries such as China will give way to online innovations. “The Internet is a tidal wave that is going to be impossible for anyone to keep out,” Williams said during an on-stage chat at the South By South West Interactive gathering here. “In places like China it is hard to say how long those firewalls will be able to hold up,” he said. Beijing tightly controls online content in a vast system of censorship often called the “Great Firewall of China”, removing information it deems harmful — including pornography and violence, but also politically sensitive material. Williams’s comments came as Internet colossus Google and China face-off on the censorship of online searches in that country. California-based Google has said it is prepared to leave the world’s largest online market if Beijing continues to insist on its censoring its Web searches. China on Friday warned Google it would face “consequences” if it stopped filtering its search results, after the firm threatened to leave the country over cyber attacks and Web censorship. Google threatened in January to abandon its Chinese-language search engine and perhaps leave China altogether over what it said were cyber attacks aimed at its source code and at the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. The company has since continued to filter results on Google.cn and posted ads for dozens of positions in China, which has 384 million web users. “We are just realizing the promise of the Internet,” Williams said. “It is about democratization of information that anybody can share with the world... It will continue to change institutions for the coming decades.” Twitter has become an Internet Age superstar since it was created in 2006 as a way for people to share their thoughts, observations and activities in the form of messages of no more than 140 characters. — AFP  Read More →